Hanford's haunted Bastille

Do the spirits of inmates still haunt this old prison in Hanford?

Located in downtown Hanford, Ca is a rather unique brick building called The Bastille. Built around 1897 it served as the Kings County prison until 1964 when the building was condemned following the discovery of the sheriff office's ceiling strewn upon his desk and surrounding floor area. With the unexpected "cave-in" came additional inspection of the old structure. A new and much larger sheriff's office and jail were soon constructed about one mile to the west on Lacey Boulevard and the original prison was closed.

Over the years the building has been home to several restaurants and nightclubs. What's interesting is that there have been reports from the cooks in the kitchen of some unseen presence trying to frighten them. Pots and pans would be moved and the cooks felt like someone was always watching them. Other reports of a heavy presence in the old solitary confinement chambers (now converted to individual dining areas) and there are rumors after a new set of stairs were built leading to the restrooms, they appeared to become old and frail.

The Bastille at night.

Could some of the prisoners who died here over the fifty plus years still be roaming the building, claiming they are innocent and are trying to get anyone's attention? Or perhaps there are other spirits still there who were angry for being imprisoned there and are still making their feelings known after death? Unfortunately The Bastille is currently closed as the restaurant that was in there closed for business. Eventually another business will open up in there. Will they experience the same things as others in the past? Or have those ghosts of The Bastille finally become silent after all these years?

Ghost girl appears in Chilean video

In Chile, a woman named Cecilia Muñoz went on a ghost hunting expedition to a building that is notorious for reports of a ghost of a little girl that is said haunts the basement level of the building.

Cecilia and her mother decided to make a visit and do some amateur ghost hunting of their own. Given that there was no real activity captured the first few hours, her mother suggested that she go down to the basement with a group of children. The mother theorized that if there was a ghost of a young girl, then the ghost would feel more comfortable around children and possibly make an appearance.

What follows next is a video that shows three young men and a young girl being recorded throughout a basement. In a split second on the film, it’s claimed that the ghost of the girl makes her appearance.

In this frame, you see one of the young men walking, right to his side you see what appears to be a little girl wearing a dress. You can see her wearing black shoes and white socks.

According to the witnesses, she was not accounted for in the group. The only other female in between the young men was not wearing a dress at that time.

Here is a brief translation of what is being said in the video:

Cecilia: One day we were sitting here in the house, doing some sketches and we decided to take a camera to the place to see what happened.

Male reporter: The group decided to record in the most solitary place of the building. The basement.

Cecilia: Because it’s said that a little girl haunts the place. The security guards all have said to seen her while making their routine runs.

Cecilia’s Mother: We would usually go by ourselves to record in this basement. We would take two cameras. One was left on one end of the hall, the other, on the other side. We never captured anything for awhile. This day, when she (Cecilia) went to drop off a friend, told me that she was gonna take advantage of being around the building and record for a bit. It occurred to me to tell her to go down, but with some kids. If there is a ghost girl around, then the fact that there are kids near by, she might make an appearance.

Cecilia: I got the camera, started walking around with NightShot. I was just walking around and recording. Holding on to one of the young man’s arm. Just walking and recording. We didn’t see anything. Once I got in the car with my sister, I asked her to review the tape. She then says: “Tati (nickname) I see something, I see something!” and then the battery dies. So we get home and I shout Mom! Mom! we got something. We plugged it up to the TV and there we saw it.

Male reporter: Astonished, Cecilia reviewed the scene over and over. Behind 2 of the minors that were investigating the basement, there is an faint apparition of a girl that no one had seen in that moment.

Cecilia: You can tell that she is taking some footsteps. There is a hand that you can make out here. She takes a few steps and you can see that she is carrying a shoe or a sweater on her arm.

Young man: I was walking this way, and then you can see her appear behind him. It appears near that wall.

Young girl: The little girl was dressed in white and had on a sweater.

Link to the original story can be found here.

Werewolf reportedly sighted in Southen California

I recently came across an account of a werewolf sighting down in Newport Beach. Normally I would dismiss the claim as either a hoax or mis-identification, but something struck me about this one. It was just the image the person reported seeing. It intrigued me enough I felt I had to share it.

My sighting took place around 11:30 p.m. on November 4, 2009. I work for the local 73 toll road in Newport Beach, California, and lately we’ve had some construction on the surrounding roads for the past few months. I am a third-shift manager (2 p.m.-11 p.m.), and every night driving home I take the exact same route at pretty much the same time every night.

On this night, I was coming off the exit for the 133 road connector, and I’ll never forget what I saw. While stopped at the stop light, I saw a group of three large, four-legged creatures dash out from the trees along the road. I started second guessing myself and tried to convince myself I was seeing things. I made the left turn at the light, and while the speed limit was still 40 mph at this part, I looked up and almost peed my pants. Those three beasts were running upright! The wolves, which seems to be the most logical guess, were about 6.5 feet tall and looked like they easily weighed 250-275 pounds each. They had snouts and mouths that almost could be expressive (being able to smile/frown) and the fur was dark, although there wasn’t enough light to tell if it was dark brown or black.

My car being a 6-cylinder, it could get going if need be. I was going 45 mph and the giant wolves were keeping up with ease. I then literally put the pedal to the metal and sped up to 70. I was sweating profusely and having a panic attack. As I sped up to 70, the wolves stopped following me, considering I was about to enter a high-traffic part of the road. The wolf in front seemed to stop on a dime and watch me drive off.

I did not hear any howls before or after the sighting. I proceeded to head home ASAP. I told my girlfriend what I saw and she deemed my “imagination was running wild.” I also told my coworkers the next day following the sighting, but nobody believes me to this day. I know I’m not crazy and I know what I saw. I still have been taking the same route home every night and have not run into anything since that night of the sighting. Who knows what they actually were, but all I know is I do not want to run into them again.

This story reminds me of the story of the Watts Valley Wolf Ape, that I had posted when I first started this blog. Yes the description is a bit different, though I wonder if what was seen in Watts Valley was a sick "version" of what was recently seen in the Newport Beach area. Whatever the case may be, one has to wonder what's wandering around late at night.

Link to the original story can be found here.

Weird Fresno's first podcast

Something I have been wanting to do for a while now is start my own podcast. I have done several over at the Dumbdrum and had fun doing it, so I thought I would give it a try. So I grabbed my best friend Tom (whom I refer to as Lestat, listen to the end of the podcast and you'll hear why) and recorded some audio. Basically we just talked for around 30 minutes about one of our favorite haunts, a bigfoot theory of his, and some plans for Weird Fresno for 2010. I must warn you though, we swear A LOT. This isn't a typical paranormal themed podcast where everyone is way to serious, this is just two guys talking about things paranormal like they would talk about sports. It's just how we are.

Feedback is greatly appreciated, I know the audio isn't the best. All I had to record was my EVP voice recorder and couldn't find my mic so it's a bit echo-ey. That and I know I talk WAY to fast so it may be hard to understand me. Still, please comment and let me know what can be done better (if anything). And if anyone comments "You suck!" I ask where your paranormal podcast is at.

With that warning being said, you can either download the file here or click below to stream it.